The Dragon's Pearl
by Sky Blue Dragon
Summary: The story takes place a exactly hundred years after the last events in "Ptomey's gate" and Kitty, Nathaniel and Bartimaeus are all still very much alive but ...Nathaniel is a Spirt. Kitty and Bartimaeus have to find the Dragon's Pearl in order to save the goverment *sigh*...again but guess who is guarding it? (all rights belong to Jonathan Stroud but this story belongs to me)
1. Chapter 1

It had been a hundred years since the glass palace incident...

Nathaniel

Nathaniel sighed, he hated to admit it but he was bored.

He recalled the events that had taken place exactly a hundred years before…

_After he dismissed Bartimaeus…_

_The staff had snapped…_

_There was a flash of blinding light…_

_Nathaniel had felt as if he was scattered then compressed again…_

_Then it went dark…_

_Nathaniel had woken up in the Other Place and was very confused as to why he wasn't dead_

_It hadn't really sunk in that he was a d-Sprit until his first summoning…_

_(Nathaniel reasoned the energy in a being as great as Nouda combined with the power of the staff must had caused something to happen to him)_

_Nathaniel had been charged with protecting the Pearl…_

_He remembered vaguely that he discovered he could go back and forth between the Other Place at will, cast spells, summon other Sprits and other stuff only magicians can do…_

_And was stuck guarding the pearl for a hundred years…*_

_Sure, there was the occasional dijin, afrit and the like,* but nothing really happened…_

Even though he could summon Sprits, Nathaniel never really had the guts to summon Bartimaeus again and he was quite sure Kitty was long dead. After a while, Nathaniel had gotten used to his new life and didn't really want to go back to his old life anymore.

Nathaniel decided he was going to color coordinate the crystals growing on the walls of his cave into a rainbow, dig a pool and swim in it and then sweep the floor.*

*** A really big downside**

*** All forced to steal the pearl by their greedy masters (Nathaniel would send them all back to the other place, something he doubt neither magician or Sprit could do and he was quite proud of)**

***what!? He was bored!**


	2. Chapter 2

Bartimaeus

I had been taking my much needed break when I felt the hooks of a summoning dig into my already sore essence. To be honest I was peeved, I felt like not even a single day had passed since Natty-boy died and I was being summoned again! The nerve of those magicians!

As I appeared in the pentacle I took the form of a particularly nasty wolf with blood shot eyes, fangs dripping with saliva and mangy fur. "WHO DARES SUMMON ME, BARTIMAEUS OF URK, SAKHR-AL-JINNI, N'GROSO THE MIGHTY, SERPENT OF THE SIVER PLUMES," I bellowed, "WHO HAS SPOKEN WITH SOL-"I broke off…..

I had just noticed who summoned me.

Kitty stood in the other pentacle, she looked considerably better, the lines on her face had all but disappeared. She stared at me and pointedly raised an eyebrow.

With a huff, I changed to Ptolemy's guise and waited expectantly.

"Bartimaeus, you are alive!" she breathed, "I was certain you and Nathaniel had died with Nouda…wait…is….Nathaniel? Kitty asked hopefully.

"Well, I hate to ruin this happy reunion of ours…but no." I said blandly

Kitty's face fell

"But, he told me to say hello!" I added quickly, trying to make up for it.

Kitty started crying*

After an extremely awkward two minutes, I decided I couldn't take this anymore.

"So…"I said, "you couldn't have just summoned me here just to check if I was…um…alive, did you? Or did you have a charge? "*

..….Absolute Silence…

I shifted uncomfortably in the circle.

Tapped my foot, whistled a few tunes*…

Kitty sniffed, and then seemed to compose herself.

"Well…there was this little matter that had sprung up…" Kitty took a deep breath then continued, "Some magician by the name of Simon Lovelace is building a demon army and trying to place himself as Prime minister, which isn't that hard since half the government got wiped out along with the last Prime Minister in the demon revolt. Also the commoners have started staging more protests but so far, the remaining magicians have managed to keep it under control…Bartimaeus…what?"

I had stiffened the second I heard Simon Lovelace's name, not that Kitty noticed of course,

_Oh_ _no instead she _kept going on about something or the other.*

"Kitty" I said quietly, "what do you know about Simon Lovelace? * "

"Um…err…he's a magician, "kitty said nervously, perhaps picking up on my somber mood. "He wants to be Prime minister and…that's it"

"Are you sure?"I pushed, "anything like his background, history or past?"

Kitty frowned, "I don't…oh! I remember something…after the fish faced man slapped Nathaniel; he said "that's for what you did to Lovelace." So…I'm guessing Nathaniel did something to Lovelace?"

"Fish faced? ...oh _him," _I said, "yes, you're right, Nathaniel did something to Lovelace, indirectly killed him, to be exact. (With _my _help of course) It was all his fault really, if he hadn't stolen that amulet, none of it would have happened. Well I _did _try to warn him but he stubbornly went ahead with it anyway. And it doing so caused the death of his master and that precious little Mrs. Underwood of his, also caused his master's house to burn down, and if it wasn't for my quick thinking, bravado and wit, he would have died multiple times. And-"*

"Bartimaeus!" Kitty shouted, "_I get it_ okay?

"Bartimaeus, you have to help! If you don't, thousands of innocent people will die!"

"But-" I began

"Bartimaeus, please!"Kitty pleaded

"But still, it is too-"I tried

"What would Ptolemy have done?" *

I sighed, "What do you want me to do?"

"Lovelace plans to take out the rest of the government by using a powerful relic of the ancient times, the _dragon's pearl_. Perhaps you have heard of it? We have to get it before Lovelace does. I have learned that it is being guarded by a powerful demon in Prague."

I groaned, "as usual, we have to risk our lives for something that is next to impossible. Normally, when people actually say _powerful demon_ they mean a being that is even powerfuller than a myriad. Also I would prefer the term _sprit, demon_ is insulting." *

Kitty made a dismissive gesture, "Fine, fine, since it is such a powerful _sprit_, I've prepared some silver daggers and the amulet."

"That's _all?" _I said, "We're doomed."

*More like bawling but who was I to judge? The poor girl had just witnessed the death of a great (if slightly mad) entity called Nouda, oh and _him._

* Now, let's get one thing straight here, I, Bartimaeus of Urk, who has built walls for a great many masters whose names now lie forgotten, does _not_ go around asking for charges, generally speaking. In fact, I normally go out of my way to avoid them. But anymore of that wet, soppy nonsense you humans called crying and I would have gone soft and _maybe_ even have shed a few tears myself. (Notice I said Maybe, not that I would, or even could, as I may have mentioned before _dijin can't cry_)

* Any longer and I would have made an album.

* something about commoners and magicians, not that I was listening, I was too busy fuming over the fact that after all that effort me and Nathaniel had put into stopping him, here he has sprung up again, like some crazy _whack a mole_ game. Except the odds are a lot higher and that Nathaniel wouldn't be here to stop him, not this time.

* I asked this because some part of me still clung to the hope that maybe this was another idiot trying to take over in Simon Lovelace's name. That hope was dashed in no time.

* I was rudely cut off here

* She had a point, and at that moment I _knew _I was going to get tangled up in this whether I liked it or not.

* I'm pretty sure I said this before


	3. Chapter 3

Kitty

Kitty trudged up the dirt road. She had chosen a light handbag for the trip to Prague.

Now, what had she been thinking about, right, Bartimaeus, it had barely been a month since the "incident", and she had heard from Ms. Piper that the government, or what was left of it, had their hands full with the commoner protests. They had stopped after a while but there was still the occasional protest over some petty issue.

Even Though the severely depleted government was barely holding on, Ms. Piper seemed to be holding her own.

Kitty had, over time, gained a lot of respect for her.

Ms. Piper had asked Kitty to steal the Dragon's Pearl because it was the easiest way to stop Lovelace with the least number of casualties. Kitty had wanted to summon a dijin to accompany her, she had meant to summon another dijin but at the last second she had said Bartimaeus' name instead. Kitty didn't know why she did it, but she was overjoyed to find him alive and well.

_And_…had a mental breakdown when her hopes of Nathaniel being alive were dashed in a matter of minutes.

She had tried to dismiss Bartimaeus' comment about her light packing, but it stuck like a thorn.

In the end, she had reluctantly settled on bringing a few magical items along with a spell book.

Now she was walking into something that looked like a hollow tree with thick, leafy foliage. The locals told her this was where the Dragon's Pearl was hidden.

A warm breeze blew by and the wind charms hanging on the branches tinkled.

Bartimaeus strolled alongside her in his favorite guise, Ptolemy. She stepped into a hollow room inside the tree.

Suddenly there was a tinkle of wind chimes, Bartimaeus stepped back in alarm and quickly threw up a shield around him and Kitty.

A jackal wearing spectacles appeared in front of them.

The jackal frowned, "where are your manners, girl?"

Kitty hastily apologized while Bartimaeus took down the shield.

The jackal brightened, "that's better, name's Cinnamon by the way.

Cinnamon's amber eyes glanced over them, and then looked down at her notebook.

"Hmmm, you don't seem to have an appointment, but I will let you in for a fee." said Cinnamon, "we take magical objects and old books but no money, elemental spheres and the such."

Kitty peered into her bag, a few elemental spheres among other gimmicks, a clutter of silver knives, a brand new spell book and the amulet of Samarkand stared back at her. Kitty mentally scolded herself for not bringing anything of value, except…but she _couldn't…"_

"That will do, "Cinnamon suddenly took the amulet from the bag and dropped it with a cry as the amulet tried to suck her in.

Quick as lightning, Bartimaeus snatched it up and threw it to kitty.

She caught it deftly.

A blue flame erupted on Bartimaeus' hand

"Look here _Cinnamon,_" he snarled, "you are nothing but a _minor dijin_, now if you don't want to get burnt a crisp, you _will_ let us in."

Cinnamon didn't even seem fazed, "I do have backup, a _high level afrit _if you want to know the specifics."

Bartimaeus snorted, "by the time the afrit comes, you will be nothing but a _stain on the floor_."

Cinnamon's eyes narrowed, "just you try it."

In a desperate attempt to calm the situation, Kitty stepped forward and lobbed the amulet to Cinnamon.

Bartimaeus gaped at her, "Kitty! Are you out of your mind?"

Cinnamon swiftly put the amulet in a wooden box before it could do anymore damage to her essence.

"Good for you, I see the girl has finally come to her senses, if it makes you feel any better," she added almost kindly, "if you succeed in obtaining the pearl you will get it back. Now, can you follow me to your sleeping quarters as it is rather late. I'm sure you do not want to get the pearl at _night."_

Bartimaeus looked at Kitty, made a face, but wisely kept his mouth shut.


End file.
